Martin Bruno Schmid

Martin Bruno Schmid (b. 1970) works at the interface of art and architecture. Drilling machinery, saws, sharpened pencil, and sandpaper are his means; material is extracted, (almost) never applied.

He addresses the very subject of construction and material with his minimalistic yet highly radical interventions in (public) buildings. Sometimes he drills and saws through load-bearing concrete columns until he reaches the (precisely calculated) limitation of their stability, or he sinks a golden wall plug into the wall of a museum, or he rotates a circular section of a concrete wall a few degrees to the right. In doing so, Martin Bruno Schmid makes visible what we take for granted. His interventions are a celebration of all those cultural techniques that enable us to spend our lives protected and safe – at the same time, they are also put our certitude to the test.

In delicate works on paper and on various types of surfaces, he perforates, drills, and saws until they – almost – rupture. But here too, his attention is not focused on the destruction; rather he explores the structure, prerequisites, and possibilities of the material.

The monograph Almost Nothing, out now, provides an insight into Schmid’s widely varied oeuvre and opens a portal into the ideational world of this German artist: Almost Nothing reveals almost everything.